Pippin
Vision Notes
A traveling troupe of players comes to your local playhouse with a seductive offer: enter a drawing for the chance to play the title role in a “choose your own adventure” musical that very night. In the YouTube era of Generation Me where ultimate fulfillment is never achieved until all eyes are watching, what offer could be more enticing? The drama which ensues is the meta-theatrical journey unfolding in real time before our eyes of the actor/audience member chosen to play Pippin and the actress from the troupe playing Catherine – and what eventually leads them to leave the performance and the company for good. It was important that this production not feel like a revival of Fosse’s 1972 stylistic tour de force, but rather a re-examination of Pippin starting with the text. Often regarded as weak and disjointedly episodic, I found in the text the compelling through-line of a young man portraying a character so similar to himself that he learns much about himself along the way. Many choices regarding the style of our production were made in an effort to distill the show down to this essence of the text. Our production was done on a primarily bare stage of rehearsal cubes and costume racks. Lighting instruments were visible. All actors were present throughout save one segment of privacy for Pippin and Catherine during the second act. The band was in view for the audience and comprised of an acoustic piano, guitar, violin, bass, and percussion – no synthesizer to recreate the 1970s pop sound of the original. Many distracting, though entertaining, gags added late in the show’s creation by Fosse (much to the chagrin of Stephen Schwartz who was banned from rehearsals) were removed. Most notably, I replaced a page-long physical gag regarding Pippin and Catherine’s first intimate encounter with an instrumental reprise of “With You.” Drawing from the choreography of the first act incarnation of this song where Pippin is impulsively drawn between multiple women, we created a pas de deux for Pippin and Catherine to visually express this important event for actor and actress, as well as the characters they play. At the end of the play it is crucial the audience understand the actor playing Pippin to be acting not out of fear, but from the discovery that fulfillment in this life is found in our relationship with those with whom we share this experience. In choosing to leave the production and start a new life with Catherine rather than killing himself onstage, he makes a choice that takes him out of the spotlight, garners no acclaim, but finally achieves his original pursuit of ultimate fulfillment. Back to Writing Page